2 Minute Ableton Live Tip #24: Drum Fills with Follow Actions

Create Drum Rolls and Fills Using Ableton's Follow Actions

There's a really useful feature inside Ableton Live. Each clip in the session view has "Follow Actions." Follow Actions tell Ableton what to do after a clip has played for a certain amount of time. It's an excellent feature that allows you to do anything from play a bunch of clips in a set order, or create completely randomly generated music. Here's a pretty sick clip from the Ableton Cookbook all about generative music.

To continue with my discussion about drums, we will use follow actions to create fills and variations on drum tracks. Check out this last 2 Minute Tip and this Drum Multi FX rack for more on the subject. I hope this video helps you inject some variation and feel to your drum parts. And be sure to take these ideas and apply them to all sorts of different types of sounds. How do you use follow actions? Let us know in the comments :)

If you need some nice drum samples and instruments to test these ideas out, look no further than the AfroDJMac Super Tape Drums. It's 450+ drum samples that I recorded to my analog reel to reel tape machine, all racked up into 30 Ableton Drum Racks. They are are warm and bursting with character!

Over 450 individual drum sounds, all sampled on to a Tascam 8 track reel to reel tape machine. They are warm and punchy. Delivered in over 30 drum racks, each organized in useful and easy to use that will make finding and creating drum parts as simple as possible. Divided into four 5 different categories of sound” 8 bit, drum machines, OP-1 drums, live and synthesized drums, and odd percussion.

AfroDJMac is the work of Brian Funk, a New York-based musician, producer, and Ableton Certified Trainer. He's a writer, podcaster, and curious sound designer who loves to share his knowledge about music production and the creative process.